Deciding to make a change to your life and sticking to it requires commitment and discipline. I don’t say this to deter you from starting something new, but honestly, it does get tough at times. So often when we are trying to make changes to our life, we look for the “secret” short cut or the trick to make it happen overnight. I often laugh at myself afterwards, thinking that if I spent that last hour of my life working on my goal, as opposed to looking for short cuts on Google, I would be that bit closer reaching to actually achieving it.

Committing to change

With something as significant as returning to work or study with a family, it will get tough in many places. When I was approached to write my book, I had an incredibly tight deadline. I was given from mid September until before Christmas to hand over my manuscript. I had the support of my family and good friends, but it was up to me to do the work. My commitment was to my publisher and effectively now I had a part time job to create the book.

Although I was committed to a deadline, if you are wanting to reach a goal, make a serious commitment to yourself and then make it public. Let your partner and family know, so they can help keep you accountable.

Break it down

Being the planner that I am, I set about writing a timetable for writing the book, breaking the work load down into manageable chunks. I had an overall word limit that I had to hit and a very detailed outline of the content for the book, so I allocated sub word limits to the chapters, so each topic would have adequate discussion. From my blog writing I knew pretty well, how many words per hour I can write, so I then allocated time to each chapter for both writing and editing. I then allocated to every day of the week from Sept – Dec 24 what my work load would be. Some days that would be nothing, others it would be many hours. I worked out I would need more hours than what my current situation allowed and my husband agreed to take off some single and multiple days of leave throughout the period to be full time carer. This allowed me to be able to work full time for days at a time.

This plan took away the massive overwhelmed feeling which had been hanging over me since I had committed to the book. Yes it was a lot of work and planning it did not reduce it, but setting it out made me feel more in control and I could see it was doable.

Break your goal down into many smaller components. If you are returning to study for example and have multiple assignments due, try a similar plan to what I did. Work out the components of each assignment, how much time you have to do it and allocate time to each component.

Make lifestyle changes

It was completely evident to me, once I created my plan and saw how my workload panned out for the next few months, that we were going to have make changes to our current lifestyle. I was going to be working most weekends, which would mean less heading out and about as a family, it meant that when I went out to socialise on weekends, I would need to curb my habit of being one of last ones there and head off earlier, to make sure I could have a reasonable amount of sleep. I also needed to wind back my commitments at the kids’ school for the last term of the year. I found changes like this hard to make as they were all things I loved, so having a solid tangible goal to remember made it more bearable.

Major changes in one area of your life often require further lifestyle changes. Don’t keep pressure on yourself to keep everything up – pull back where you need to and remember it will all be worth it in the end!

Work hard

Work hard – it is that simple really. It takes hard work to achieve your goals. Many days, especially as the weather was getting warmer and I could hear the rest of the family outside playing, I would be sitting in my study in front of the computer. I would have preferred been outside, so I’d work hard and keep myself away from distractions. Then when I had a break, I could head outside and enjoy the family, knowing I had put in enough effort and not feel guilty about it.

There was also the standard issue of the unpredictability of family life. Even with my detailed plan, I found myself on many, many occasions, working late into the night. Kids would get sick, friends would pop in, my husband would get busy at work – all sorts of things would impact on my ability to work the needed hours across the week. But with a tight deadline, I couldn’t afford to get too far behind. I simply had to put in the hours, had to do the work.

Reaching your goal will require hard work. Set yourself targets and work hard towards them. Build in incentives for yourself to stay focused and committed to the task at hand.

Build in time for enjoyment

I was equal parts terrified and absolutely relieved when I put the manuscript in the mail to my editor. We then hopped in the car and drove to Mildura to spend Christmas with my family. It has been one of the most frantic lead ups to Christmas I had ever experienced, my house was nowhere near the level of organisation I would have liked. By making the decision to go away, I gave myself time to relax and enjoy the break between submission and editing. We had a wonderful time away and staying with family meant much less work for me. It was just what I needed too. I was tired, so afternoon naps and having my mum take the kids for sleepovers etc gave me a wonderful break.

Between the editing and launch / promotion stage of the book, we took another family holiday. This was very kid fun focused and was in many ways a thank you to them for their understanding and patience through out a very busy period of our lives. Again, the complete break from work for me, allowed me to recharge, refuel and reset myself for the next round!

Just as you need to work hard, you need to take care of yourself and make sure you find opportunities for your own personal enjoyment and moments for family joy. Thinking about how to build them into your plan in advance means they will be more likely to happen. You can plan holidays / days out etc at times that will work best and then have them to look forward too.